 "Gold's not like oil or steel - it can't run cars or heat homes, and it doesn't build bridges. But unless you're a jewelry maker, the high price of gold probably won't cramp your style," wrote AP business writer Madlen Read.
She probably hasn't met any desis!
Americans might be worried about the rising price of gas, but it's the rising price of gold that is getting the goat of Indians! Indian Americans are hit with a double whammy - the price of gas and the price of gold!
Gold has risen to an astronomical $732, up from $300 per ounce five years ago and according to Read, "Some market watchers expect gold to resume its march higher, and perhaps surpass $1,000 an ounce, since the metal isn't anywhere near its record when adjusted for inflation - about $2,100 an ounce."
Indians with a gold lust surely have mixed feelings. They probably have enough gold stacked away to make a killing, but there are always the occasions to buy more, from a baby's birth to a wedding to Diwali. Gold is indispensable!
Shiv Aggarwal of Legacy Jewelers in Atlanta, which deals a lot in 22kt gold, says prices have more than doubled, but the effects are felt much more in India where the gold buying public is larger and not as affluent as Indian American buyers.
However, as he points out, gold had touched $850 in the 1980s, but people with the money were still buying it. This time, Indian Americans may have hit another solution - diamonds! Says Aggarwal: "Diamond sales have gone up, percentage wise because people are realizing that while a gold set is costing $1,500, they can get a diamond set for $2,000, so why not give diamonds? The gold sales are down at my store by 30 percent but I've picked up 30 percent in diamonds."
Soon diamonds may be a desi's best friend! | |
